The big freeze comes tomorrow to the Texas Hill Country. I am finishing my indigofera suffrucitosa seed harvest by moonlight. 
Those of you familiar with my back surgery recovery should know this is a good thing, requiring bending and limited twisting. Yahoo!
As the growing season winds down and winds and freezes become more frequent one begins to harvest the remaining leaves from the freezes and check the seed harvest status. Like little bunches of bananas the indigo seed pods darken from green to brown to black and start to reveal glimpses of tiny black seed pods.
I usually cut back my indigo after the first freezes so that the branches don’t break in the winter winds. I leave some up for the migrating hummingbirds to use in the late winter for observation perches. The stems that hold the seed pods are tough. It is easier to pull them off the same time you harvest the remaining indigo leaves before the “winter” trim. One runs the odds of leaving leaves on the branches against the odds of a wet week that will soak seed pods and frozen leaves. The weather forecast becomes a thing of great interest! But the longer one leaves the seed pods on, the better they ripen and are easier to harvest.
You can see in the photo below the “not quite ripe” against the “bursting and fling the seed out” pods. Greenish versus brown/black finishes give you the signal. Hence the wait for ripening against the rain gamble.
Usually I process in stages, cut some branches, strip out the seed pods and the frozen leaves, set the pods aside, finish up the leaf processing and let the pods continue to dry out. They are easier to process when dry. A bit of my leaf harvest is written about in this blog entry.
Below you see my processing station of the dried seeds in my red garden holding bucket. My winnowing silver bowl, my two kitchen strainers with appropriate hole size, a trash bucket for hulls and my faithful molcajete for breaking the pods for seed extraction. 
When the pods are dry they crack much easier when pressure is lightly applied by the molcajete grinding stone to break the bond.
The lightly crushed pods are put thru the two sieve process and manually stirred to release the seeds. Husks go into the black bucket for one last look for more seeds.
The seed harvest is set aside to winnow in the winds to cull out the smaller husks and chaff. If you pick over your starting seed pods and cull the green immature pods your final effort will result in a good seed harvest for next year’s use. This is not a high tech process, just time and patience that gets you in position for next year’s planting.
After the great Texas blizzard of 2017 the remaining frozen indigo needs some attention. You can see how much indigo remains in the Indigo Suffrucitosa. I will pick and strip them before the winds take them down for me.
My day will be spent slowly trimming more branches in anticipation of the winter winds.
Slow is the operative word as I am still recovering from an October back TLIF surgery. I’ve graduated from my cane, I can start driving in a limited basis and start physical therapy next week to restore my core strength. I had a major victory this morning when I could lace my boots myself. My husband is glad to see me further along the recovery road also. I had a set back earlier this week when I tried to do too much too soon. My body set me straight yesterday. Patience is not one of my virtues. Gardening and the dye pot help some.
Besides harvesting the frozen leaves indigo the seeds have matured and need to be gathered, dried and winnowed.
I am amazed to report that this year’s volunteer crop outside the fence line did not get a nibble this season from the ever insatiable deer herd. Next year I will get more ambitious and purposely plant seed along the irrigation line.
The test bed on the west side did well above my expectations. It was exposed to the hot August and September sun and held up. More will be planted there next year. I think regular irrigation will make that a viable bed for future use.
The Japanese Indigo has gone for the season. The seeds are drying and the bed needs to be cleared.
The critter that cannot be caught waited politely thru the growing season before making an incursion under my Fort Indigo fence. We will continue our quest to capture & relocate the grub digger.
Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday and a New Year as the year draws to an end. If I decide to sell seeds for next spring I will post here. Enjoy your garden dreams for 2018.
debmcclintock 
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